Chances are, most of us have used Wikipedia at some point. It’s one of the best free research tools out there (source: Wikipedia.com), and the information is growing every day. But some of the articles on it are–well–niche. Here are some of the weirdest.
1. Grunting in Tennis.
Many tennis players grunt while swinging, and some people find it obnoxious. However, many tennis players and psychologists agree that it helps with the rhythm of the game.
2. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
In the 1850s, an army led by a Chinese man who claimed to be Jesus’ younger brother attempted to replace Chinese religions with his version of Christianity and abolish and reform many aspects of Qing dynasty China. They were eventually defeated by the Qing government with the help of France and the UK.
3. Sackbut
These primitive trombones are simpler than modern instruments and were most popular during the Rennaissance and Baroque periods. Today they are mostly used for period pieces.
4. List of Defunct Amusement Parks
If you have a taste for the macabre, you should check out Wikipedia’s official list of defunct amusement parks. Be prepared for some good times and some… well, not so good.
5. The Mudflap Girl
This recognizable icon, best known as The Mudflap Girl, has represented the trucking industry since the ’70s. It’s now a pop culture icon which has been adapted for libraries, a chicken company, and feminism.
6. Mormon Handcart Pioneers
There were exactly ten companies of Mormons who traveled West pulling handcarts over four years, and two of them met with disaster. This page has everything you could possibly want to know about it.
7. The United States of Greater Austria
Austria had its share of political strife before World War I, and for a while, scholars proposed dividing the country into separate states to add more autonomy and lessen the frustration. The plan never came to pass.
8. Vehicle Registration Plates in Australia
Have you ever caught yourself looking at Australian cars and motorcycles and wondering what it all meant? No? Well, this will explain everything–letters, numbers, dates, slogans, colors, and more!
9. FP-45 Liberator
The FP-45 Liberator was a single shot pistol manufactured for use by resistance fighters during World War II, but never actually used (to anyone’s knowledge). It was never issued to soldiers, and very few records were kept of it.
10. Ten Little Injuns
“Ten Little Injuns” was written by Septimus Winner in 1868, and variations of it are still popular today. The original song begins with a Mr. John Brown who has an American Indian boy. The boy grows into ten and then back into one.
11. Abul-Abbas (Charlemagne’s Pet Elephant)
There are many records of the Asian elephant that Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid gave Charlemagne, and the elephant’s life is considerably documented.
12. Triskaidekaphobia
This page is all about the fear of the number 13, which dates back hundreds, or possibly thousands, of years. It’s still common for tall buildings not to include the thirteenth floor.
13. February 30
Before you put something off until February 30, you might want to read this. It’s more real than you might think.
14. The Phantom Time Hypothesis
The Phantom Time Hypothesis is a conspiracy theory that originated in 1991 and was first proposed by Herribert Illig. This hypothesis claims that a large chunk of the Middle Ages was actually fabricated and that we are currently only in the year 1719 instead of 2016.
15. Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously
This sentence was constructed by famed linguist Noam Chomsky. It’s both grammatically correct and nonsensical, and you’ll get a headache if you think about it too long.
16. Nicholas If-Jesus-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barbon
Barbon, as we’ll call him, was actually an economist in the 1600s who helped pioneer fire insurance. But that was his real name.
17. Project Steve
Project Steve was named after scientist Stephen J. Gould, and originally it was intended to gather the signatures of 100 pro-evolution, anti-intelligent design scientists named Steve. The current list stands at approximately 1400 Steves with more coming in all the time.
Lumpy Guppy 
